On the way to Arica ... Man Overboard

We were out on the 6th floor front deck looking for the man overboard when we saw the whales. There were lots of whales. “Thar she blows!” Spouts were popping up three or four a minute over a large area. The sea is not quite dead calm, but there are very few whitecaps, so every white splash was a whale. You could just catch glimpses of fins, backs, and tails. None of them really jumped out of the water, at least while I was watching. From seeing about 40 spouts, I am guessing maybe a hundred whales. I'll have to ask Dirk about that.

The first announcement “Mr. ?????, please contact the pursers desk immediately” was made about 10 a.m. They turned the boat around a few minutes later, maybe 10:30 and announced that someone may have gone overboard. Going full speed back along the gps course, we started a zigzag search course at 2:30. The Chilean Air Force and Navy also conducted searches. We were released to continue on our way at 8:00pm. The person is still missing

The grapevine through the ship says the man was in his sixties and married. He was traveling with his wife. He was last seen at 4:30 last night and reported missing this morning at 9:30am.

We will call on our next port tomorrow as scheduled but 7 hours late. Jack and I are retooling our plans for the day.